Underfunded: Mental health care thin at county jails

FdL County among5 that provide help

5:22 PM,
Jan. 8, 2013

An inmate sits in a cell Tuesday at the Fond du Lac County Jail.

Written by

Rory Linnane,
Tegan Wendland

For more than a decade, Milwaukee County's jail system has been under the scrutiny of a court-appointed medical monitor for its failure to provide adequate health care, including for inmates with mental illness.

In August, the monitor found mental health care in Milwaukee County's two jails was still in shambles. Among the problems: Vacancies in top medical positions left jailers to make medical decisions, such as when an inmate should be removed from suicide watch. A man who had threatened to kill himself stopped eating and drinking for four days and was never taken to a hospital. He died in ...